Funds dry up for Haitian charity overseen by ex-Fairfielder

Published 6:59 pm, Sunday, September 20, 2009

The project established 11 years ago by a former Fairfield resident to give a new life to homeless Haitian street boys closed this summer.

And the good works done by American volunteers, many from Fairfield University, at Project Pierre Toussaint in Haiti have been clouded by the allegations of sexual abuse against Douglas Perlitz, the program's founder who in 2002 was presented an honorary degree for his mission by the university, his alma mater.

Meanwhile, the whereabouts and role that the Rev. Paul Carrier, the university's former director of campus ministry and community service, may have played as chairman of the board controlling the Haiti Fund remains unknown.

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The fund, which provided much of the financing for the Project Pierre Toussaint, appears to have evaporated, a lawyer for the fund said Friday.

Numerous phone calls to the Society of Jesus, New England Province, the Jesuit order to which Carrier belonged, were not returned Friday by their spokeswoman, Alice Poltorick.

Thomas Carson, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's office in Connecticut, declined to comment on whether Carrier is a focus of the continuing investigation into the charity.

Perlitz, 39, formerly of Fairfield, appeared Friday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Boyd N. Boland in Denver and consented to be returned to Connecticut, where he will face charges of traveling to Haiti to engage in sexual activity with boys at the program.

Deputy U.S. marshals are expected to bring Perlitz back to Connecticut for his arraignment before U.S. Magistrate Judge Joan G. Margolis sometime in the next two weeks. It is expected that Perlitz will deny the charges. It is also expected Assistant U.S. Attorney Krishna Patel will argue that Perlitz be detained without bond until his trial because he represents a risk of flight and a danger to the community.

The seven-count indictment filed Tuesday against Perlitz alleges he used his position in the program to provide food, shelter, money and gifts to homeless Haitian street boys in exchange for sex.

Allegations of Perlitz's actions first surfaced on a Haitian radio program in December 2007, according to Richard Markert, a lawyer hired by the Haiti Fund to help investigate the charges.

"He appeared to have an unblemished record of selfless devotion to poor street children," Markert said. "The charges were first met with shock and disbelief."

The Haiti Fund board turned to Markert, who hired investigators in Haiti to look into the allegations.

"There was a long investigation, about seven months," he said. "The indictment makes it clear the board was kept in the dark ... Nothing casts a negative light on the Haiti Fund. The board did what it could and acted responsibility to what was alleged."

The board had fired Perlitz last summer.

The indictment alleges that more than $2 million was transferred from the Haiti Fund to an account in Haiti that Perlitz controlled. It is not clear what the money may have been spent on , the lawyer said.

"The scope of our investigation did not include an accounting of the funds," Markert said. He said the fund does not have the resources now to engage an accounting firm.

Now, he added, the board is actively looking for "an appropriate organization to take over the work of Project Pierre Toussaint," but "is not in a financial position to partner up ..."

Perlitz created Project Pierre Toussaint as a street clinic in 1997 with a grant from the Order of Malta, an Italian-based Catholic organization.

But the operation grew from a clinic into residential programs for both youngsters up to high school age.

A two-level home, dubbed Bel Air, was also built. Perlitz lived on the first floor, while American volunteers stayed on the second.

Paul Kendrick, a Fairfield University graduate who is an advocate for victims of sexual abuse, visited the home during a trip to Haiti in 2003.

"It was beautiful," said Kendrick, who now lives in Maine and is a co-founder of that state's chapter of Voice of the Faithful, which advocates for people sexually abused by the clergy. "It had a beautiful panoranic view of the ocean and overlooks the city of Cap-Haitien."

But Kendrick claims his "antenna went up" upon seeing the number of children at the house. He said there were boys raking, cleaning, even slouching in chairs watching television.

"The boundaries were not good," he said.

Kendrick said he, too, has been stymied in obtaining information from the Society of Jesus about Carrier. Carrier is no stranger to him. The pair have talked on the phone and corresponded while Kendrick was considering working as a volunteer at the Haiti project.

"He would be someone I would want to talk to," Kendrick said. "I'd like to know what did he miss, what did he not see and what should we as the advocates for victims of sexual abuse know?"